Your guide to navigating the health care landscape

Bringing a Health Insurance Broker to Your Office: Is It Worth It?

Bringing a Health Insurance Broker to Your Office: Is It Worth It?

Being a health insurance broker is all about plans and numbers and sales calls, so you might not think about inviting your broker to explain benefits to your employees. You should rethink that. A report from Harvard University estimated that people spend 1.1 billion hours on health care issues, which is a tremendous burden. Understanding what insurance you need and how your insurance works can cut down the amount of time you have to take away from work to handle health care. Bringing in a health insurance broker can help you help your employees.

Provide Detailed Information

Sure, you went over the available plans with a fine-tooth comb and picked the best plan for your office, but you don’t know nearly as much as your broker does. There may be a few employees who have unusual situations that you can’t address without picking up the phone and calling your insurance broker yourself. This is more efficient, and you can guarantee that the answer will be correct.

The broker can address details and big picture changes between this year’s plan and last year’s plan, and they can give added insight as to why this plan is good for your company.

Point Out Shortcuts and Secrets

There isn’t anything secret about your health insurance plan. All the information is available, but it may not be easily accessible or understandable. A health care insurance broker already knows these things — from how to choose the right physician and how to file claims to how to pick the right plan for your family — he or she can guide you through things, making it easier in the future for everyone.

Save Everyone Time

As the person in charge of securing health insurance for the company, how much of your time is spent answering questions? A ton. One meeting with the broker can answer a host of questions. Even people who weren’t paying attention can benefit from their co-workers who were paying attention. An hour of the broker’s time may be worth 20 minutes of your time, depending on how big your business is and how much this year’s plan differs from last year.

Take Advantage of Knowledge

When your employees start out the year knowing what to expect from their health insurance — including their Health Savings Accounts, Flexible Spending Accounts, deductibles and why they should use the mail-order pharmacy when possible — they won’t have mixups later on and be hit with unexpected bills or penalties. Your employees can then go forth with confidence.